Chapter 114: Strangers

We had delivered mainly food, clothing, medicine, and sanitary supplies to the village.

Apparently, this village had been struck by a severe storm about a week ago. The torrential rain had caused the river to overflow, destroying the bridge that connected the village to the nearest major town. `On top of that, crops and houses had suffered extensive damage.

The villagers were currently throwing themselves into reconstruction efforts with all hands on deck, but the broken bridge had forced them to take a lengthy detour, making the shortage of supplies even more severe. Now that we had rebuilt the bridge, things would hopefully improve, at least a little.

I had also decided to provide crops harvested from our garden. Because of the detour, it had taken two or three days to reach the village, so most of the food they had been receiving were preserved or processed items. Fresh food had been a rare luxury for them.

The gratitude from the villagers had far exceeded my expectations. They had even held a feast in our honor, serving us a lavish spread of food.

“Truly, thank you for everything. You are our greatest benefactors,” they said with heartfelt warmth.

Since they insisted, we spent the night in the village. The next morning, the entire village—including the mayor—gathered to see us off as we departed from Mera Village.

After a one-night, two-day journey, we returned to the city of Randall. Our first stop was the Adventurer’s Guild to report our mission. That was when we unexpectedly ran into Lua and her party.

Lua’s face held a mixture of surprise and suspicion as she asked,

“You haven’t left yet? This was an urgent request—you can’t afford to take it slowly.”

“No. We completed the request and have returned,” Shifa replied matter-of-factly.

“…Huh?”

Lua’s eyes went wide at the simple denial.

“Wha—what are you saying? There’s no way you could have gone there and back in such a short time! Even one way would take two or three days…”

Then her expression suddenly shifted, and she abruptly closed her mouth. Anii noticed it immediately.

“Wait… you’re not seriously saying you gave us that request knowing the bridge was destroyed, are you?”

“W-what do you mean? I didn’t force it on you—don’t say such horrible things. I just… let you have it,” Lua stammered, her eyes darting nervously.

Her reaction was suspiciously guilty. Anii pressed on without hesitation.

“You just said it would take two or three days one way, right? If the bridge were there, it wouldn’t take nearly that long. You knew we’d have to take the detour, didn’t you?”

“….”

Lua stayed silent, unable to find a response. After a long pause, she finally spoke, defensively.

“So what if I did know? I’m under no obligation to tell you, am I?”

Whoa. She’s completely brushing it off…

Anii’s irritation flared.

“That’s just bad manners!”

“Ha! Expecting adventurers to have manners is asking too much, if you ask me,” Lua shot back.

“…You even recommended lodging and restaurants to us, right? But both were terrible, not the good places you suggested. I checked them because I was suspicious,” Anii continued, narrowing her eyes.

Oh… so it wasn’t kindness after all. And… when did she even look into it?

“Oh? Really? I just went by what someone told me. I don’t actually know much about them,” Lua said, her tone unnaturally casual.

“Give me a break… It’s just revenge for us taking the Hydra request from you, isn’t it? Honestly, your pettiness and nasty personality are astounding. No wonder you’re still stuck at C-rank. A typical girls-only party, happy just to be fawned over by men—there’s no way you’ll improve,” Anii spat, her words sharp as daggers.

“W-what did you just say…!”

Lua’s face darkened instantly. She raised her voice, ready to erupt.

“Lua! Calm down!”

“Now isn’t the time for a fight!”

Her party members hurriedly restrained her as she seemed about to lash out.

At that moment, Sena, who had been looking off in some random direction with utter disinterest, suddenly piped up.

“Hey—hey, who are these people~?”

Of course, she should have met them before, but apparently, none of it had stuck in her memory. Well… it was Sena, so what else is new.

““…Wha—”””

Lua and her party were clearly shocked by the question, unaware of Sena’s peculiar nature.

The final blow came when Shifa, trying to answer Sena’s question, paused, frowned, and muttered,

“…I… forgot their names.”

Fair enough—the names were a bit tricky. Even I didn’t remember them; only Lua had them memorized.

““……””

Lua’s party was left utterly speechless.

“Unknown people? Why are we still talking to strangers? Let’s go home already.”

“Sena… could you try reading the room just a little?”

“Huh?”

Seeing Lua and her party frozen in disbelief, Anii couldn’t resist a sly, teasing smile.

“Pffft… looks like you were completely invisible to our party, huh? Well, if you’re frustrated, don’t resort to sneaky tactics—prove yourself through your achievements as adventurers instead.”

“Ugh… S-shut up! Let’s go!”

Shaking with a mix of anger and embarrassment, Lua barked at her party and stormed off, her members hastily following behind.